The director of the 15th edition of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 is the Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena, the winner of the Pritzker Prize of this year. The exhibition is open to the public from Saturday May 28th to Sunday November 27th 2016 at the Giardini and the Arsenale.

Best Design Guides will present you the Top 10 of all 63 National Participations in the historic Pavilions at the Giardini, at the Arsenale and in the historic city center of Venice.

Japan

The Japanese pavilion is all about the future of architecture in Japan, reflecting the the ubiquity of the internet, which has been cultivated communities of sharing. The young companies, most of them practically unknown outside the country designs, proposing resolutions to the typical divisions between the private property and the architecture itself.

Russia

The Russian exhibition unveil the history and future of the V.D.N.H., an extensive fairground built by Joseph Stalin in the periphery of Moscow. The exhibition makes a compelling case to recover existing architecture and infrastructure.

Ireland

This year, the Irish pavilion, which was designed by architects Niall McLaughlin and Yeoryia Manolopoulou, takes the Alzheimer Society of Ireland’s Orchard Day and Respite Centre in Dublin as the central point.

Britain

Conceptually, it is the most enthusiastic pavilion at this year’s Biennale, studying the spatial implications of real housing design. The Britain Pavillon displays hypothetical interior arrangements across five dedicated rooms, in each model fits a scenario of domestic life for a specific timeframe: hours, days, months, years, and decades.

Swiss architect Christian Kerez built one expressive and geometric form at the Biennale, a white cloud made of sprayed fibre cement that invites visitors to crawl into the interior space of the cavity. The result is a visually stunning display built with an impressive minimum of material means.

Albania

The Albanian pavilion is refreshingly devoid of floor plans, scale models, and technical documents. In fact, the entire space is quite nearly empty, containing a turntable, speakers, and a signal that reveal the iso-polyphonic track that’s playing.

Baltic Countries

The alley between the Arsenale and the Giardini is a fitting and evocative location for the first Biennale display that represents a collaborative effort by all three Baltic nations: Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Inside, tables display photographs of some architecture projects and infrastructures from all three nations.

Berlin

The exhibition design was conceived by architecture studio Something Fantastic, based in Berlin. The designers celebrate the efficiency and simplicity of this low-budget design and hilight the fact that this Biennale is more than exhibition of architecture.